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ASH Daily News

24 November 2005

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HEADLINES

Wide ranging groups pushing for comprehensive smoking bill

Research shows youths targeted with flavoured cigarettes

BAT seeks deal with Russian post office

Wigand pays tribute to Australian 'whistleblower'

FULL TEXT

Wide ranging groups pushing for comprehensive smoking bill

Environmental health officers (EHOs) and local government representatives have branded the Government's plans to partially ban smoking as contradictory, complex and unenforceable.

Both organisations will tell an influential parliamentary hearing on smoking today that a partial smoking ban is a fudge that will be too expensive and complicated to police.

Ian Gray, from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, will call on the Government to introduce a total workplace ban on smoking in England and Wales at the third hearing session of the Health Select Committee.

A spokesman for the institute said: "Linking smoking to food consumption is itself illogical in public health terms and in many pubs and clubs the law will not protect staff. This unethically requires our members to protect some workers while not others."
The Local Government Association (LGA) will also tell today's hearing that a partial ban linked to food will be too complex and expensive.

Senior figures in the profession fear that EHOs, which also have additional responsibilities under the new licensing act, are being asked to do too much with too little.

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) is holding talks with EHOs and other industry representatives to push for a complete ban on Monday next week.

BHA chief executive Bob Cotton told Caterer that the Government was starting to understand that the majority of the leisure and hospitality industries wanted a total ban.

"It's only the pub trade that is opposed, but this is about people at work and should not be derailed by them as it is a bigger issue than that," Cotton said.

The talks tie in with the expected second reading of the Health Bill on 29 November.

Source: Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 24 November 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/cwger


Research shows youths targeted with flavoured cigarettes

Flavoured cigarettes sold under names like Twista Lime, Midnight Berry and Warm Winter Toffee may be undermining restrictions aimed at stopping tobacco companies from marketing their products to youths, new research from Harvard says.

"Flavoured cigarettes can promote youth initiation and help young occasional smokers to become daily smokers by masking the natural harshness and taste of tobacco smoke and increasing the acceptability of a toxic product," wrote the authors, led by Carrie Carpenter of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study said lawmakers should consider barring companies from adding candy-like flavours to cigarettes.

The study looked both at the cigarettes themselves and at internal tobacco company documents that became public as part of the 1998 legal settlement between the companies and state attorneys general.

One document said flavoured cigarettes appealed to women and younger smokers.

Source: International Herald Tribune, 24 November 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/7eet5


BAT seeks deal with Russian post office

British American Tobacco has struck an exclusive deal with the Russian Post Office to sell cigarettes, including the flagship Kent brand, through more than 30,000 outlets.

The London-based company hopes that the deal will play a key role in hitting its target of toppling Philip Morris, the Malboro maker, as Russia's biggest cigarette player by 2010.

BAT, whose 20.5 per cent market share lags behind Philip Morris, with about 27 per cent, will use the Post Office network to deal with the logistical problem of covering Russia's vast landmass.

Russia is the world's third-biggest tobacco market, behind China, with 1.6 trillion cigarettes, and the United States, with 400 billion. It has an annual consumption of about 315 billion cigarettes. British consumption is about 57 billion cigarettes. Almost half of Russian adults smoke.

BAT has backed up its aggressive claims with a $170 million expansion of its three Russian factories in Moscow, St Petersburg and Saratov. The expansion will boost capacity from 95 billion cigarettes a year to 115 billion by 2009. Ultimately, the company plans to expand capacity to 125 billion cigarettes by 2014.

Mr Taylor said that BAT's market-leading target would be achieved on the back of key product relaunches, significant investment and a focus on smokers under the age of 30. He denied that the company's age target would inevitably attract underage smokers.

In order to attract and retain key personnel BAT has introduced a pension scheme for its 3500 Russian employees to complement the meagre state provision.

Source: The Times, 24 November 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/aczfe


Wigand pays tribute to Australian 'whistleblower'

An Australian tobacco lawyer turned whistleblower has spoken out today about the dirty tricks used by the industry against him.

Sydney lawyer Fred Gulson was recognised by health experts for coming forward with inside knowledge of the tobacco industry.

US whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand's fight against the tobacco companies was given the Hollywood treatment in the Russell Crowe film, The Insider.

Now Mr Wigand has flown to Australia to pay tribute to Australia's own insider, Mr Gulson.

"This was a 12,000-mile journey for me to recognise what Fred has done in terms of coming forward with what he knew about 'document retention'," Mr Wigand said.

Mr Gulson was a senior lawyer for WD and HO Wills, now British American Tobacco (BAT).

The company was successfully sued by Melbourne lung cancer patient Rolah McCabe, in what was a landmark case.

When the ruling was overturned, Mr Gulson said he came forward because he knew the company had destroyed thousands of crucial documents.

"It's not whistleblowing - it's truth telling," he said.

Mr Gulson has since testified against tobacco companies in the United States even though he says it put him and his family in danger.

"I felt worried enough to insist part of the deal for me giving evidence in the US was that we had 24-hour armed guards at home," he said.

He says he received abusive text messages, visits to his home and phone calls from people he believes were trying to intimidate him.

But Mr Gulson's fight has not been in vain.

The Victorian Government has introduced laws making it an offence for companies to destroy documents before or during court cases.

The whistleblower says those laws should be adopted across Australia.

Source: ABC News, 24 November 2005

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